NEWTON (IRN) – Governor Kim Reynolds is expected to announce today officially that NASCAR is bringing its top series to the Iowa Speedway. The Athletic reported first Monday that a race in Newton will replace a former competition at California Speedway. This will be the first time in 18 years that the track will host the top Cup drivers from NASCAR.

IOWA (IRN) – Despite worsening drought across most of Iowa, the annual crop remains in decent shape and ahead of schedule. The latest U.S. Department of Agriculture report showed 92 percent of Iowa’s corn is mature — well ahead of the five-year average at this point in the season of 76 percent. Approximately 16 percent of the crop is out of the field, up from 10 percent in 2022. The soybean harvest is in line with the five year average, and one-fourth of the crop is out. Seventy-three percent of Iowa’s topsoil and 79% of the state’s subsoil is short on moisture or worse.

DES MOINES (IRN) The State of Iowa agreed to an interim settlement in a lawsuit brought on behalf of Medicaid-eligible children with serious mental and behavioral health needs, which asserted that Iowa administers an inadequate mental health system that does not provide children and youth with legally required services. To address these decades long issues, the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services announced it has launched major transformations through the Mental Health and Disability Regional structure to provide core services to children in Iowa and will continue to improve the state’s mental health system.

IOWA (IRN) – The Federal Emergency Management Agency and Federal Communications Commission will conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts this week. The national test will consist of two portions, with both scheduled for 1:20 p.m. this Wednesday. The wireless portion will be directed to all consumer cell phones, and should display in either English or Spanish, depending on the device and its language settings. All wireless phones should receive the message only once. The emergency alert test will then go over the airwaves, including all FCC-regulated television and radio stations.